The present invention pertains to vehicle headliner systems and particularly to a vehicle headliner which integrally includes one or more sun blocking visors.
With modern vehicles assembly methods, it is becoming increasingly important to integrate vehicle subassemblies. The vehicle interior trim is an example of such integration, whereby trim panels, for example, are pre-manufactured to include a variety of accessories. Thus, for example, a vehicle headliner may include integrated dome lights, overhead consoles and visors which have been attached to the headliner prior to the installation of the headliner assembly in the vehicle during the manufacturing of the vehicle. The supplier of the trim piece will typically add various components to a headliner shell prior to shipping to the vehicle manufacturer. Such an assembly can then be readily installed in a vehicle without the need for further preassembly prior to assembly of the headliner into the vehicle.
There exists several visor installations which are adapted to mount to a vehicle headliner, such that the visor extends between the vehicle roof support structure and the headliner itself. Representative of such visor installations are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,492,404; 4,491,360; 4,824,160 and 4,468,062. Also U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,867 discloses a visor which includes a mounting flap for bolting to a vehicle such that the visor is attached to the vehicle roof support together with the headliner and stores within a recess formed in the headliner. Such construction, again, requires additional subassembly at the automobile manufacturing facility thereby adding to the cost and time of manufacturing vehicles